First Data Corp., which provides electronic commerce and payment services, announced Thursday that it is cutting 6 percent of its global work force, including an unspecified number of jobs in Moorpark.

The company began this year with about 29,000 employees worldwide, but grew through acquisitions. It now plans to end the year back where it started by cutting about 1,700 employees.

First Data employs about 200 people in Moorpark.

The company would not say how many of those jobs were cut.

The Moorpark location, which operates as Cardservice International at 6101 Condor Drive, was fully acquired by First Data at the end of 2001 after years of partial ownership. Cardservice International opened in 1988.

First Data only released layoff numbers for major sites, such as Omaha and Denver, where job losses totaled about 300 and 100 jobs, respectively.

The company said in a statement that it will consolidate many of its smaller sites, although there was no information available about which ones.

An employee who lost her job at the Moorpark location Thursday said she had heard rumors about layoffs and reorganization and that 23 employees were laid off there.

The woman, who did not want her name used, said the cuts came as a shock.

"They laid off quite a few people I would never have dreamed would be laid off," she said.

Cuts included people who had been with the company for more than a decade, including employees in accounting, programming and business development, she said.

She said a lot of those people were taking their belongings out to their cars Thursday morning.

"On previous layoffs, I know they have opened up other opportunities for people," the woman said. "This time, they didn't. They pretty much told everybody, You're gone to-day.' "

The company said employees are eligible to receive severance packages.

Moorpark Assistant City Manager Hugh Riley said the company did not notify the city about layoffs — although companies are supposed to provide some notice to agencies that help employees find new jobs.

First Data was publicly traded until September, when it was acquired for $26 billion by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York-based private equity firm.

At the time, the company stated that it planned to consolidate its 12 data centers into three, and its seven command centers that oversee data operations into three in the next few years.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.